Syrian violence contributed to a sharp rise in
the number of journalists killed for their work in 2012, as did a series of
murders in Somalia. The dead include a record proportion of journalists who
worked online. A CPJ special report

Almost half of the 67 journalists killed worldwide in 2012 were
targeted and murdered for their work, research
by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows. The vast majority covered
politics. Many also reported on war, human rights, and crime. In almost half of
these cases, political groups are the suspected source of fire. There has been
no justice in a single one of these deaths.

The tortured
and decapitated body of 39-year-old María
Elizabeth Macías Castro was found on a Saturday evening in September
2011. It had been dumped by the side of a road in Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican
border town ravaged by the war on drugs. Macías, a freelance journalist, wrote
about organized crime on social media under the pseudonym "The Girl from Laredo." Her murder, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, was the first in which a journalist was killed in direct
relation for reporting published on social media. It remains unsolved.

Three years ago, on November 23, 2009, 30 journalists and two
media workers were brutally
killed in the southern Philippine city of Maguindanao while travelling in a
convoy with the family and supporters of a local politician. To this day, not a
single suspect has been convicted, though local authorities have identified
close to 200. The botched trial
has been stalled with procedural hurdles. Victims' families have been
threatened and key witnesses have been slain.

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New York, November 8, 2012--Authorities in the Philippines must immediately investigate the shooting death of radio journalist Julius Cauzo and bring the perpetrators to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Approximately 30 journalists are targeted and murdered every
year, and on average, in only three of these crimes are the killers ever brought
to justice. Other attacks on
freedom of expression occur daily: bloggers are threatened, photographers
beaten, writers kidnapped. And in those instances, justice is even more rare.
Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists joins freedom of expression
advocates worldwide in a 23-day campaign
to dismantle one case at a time a culture of impunity
that allows perpetrators to gag journalists, bloggers, photographers and
writers, while keeping the rest of us uninformed.

On Tuesday, the Philippines Supreme Court issued a temporary
restraining order stopping the government from enforcing the Cybercrime
Prevention Act of 2012 which President Benigno Aquino III signed into law
last month. The court, in full session, ordered that oral arguments for and
against will start January 15. And it gave the government 10 days to respond to
the many petitioners seeking to declare the law unconstitutional.

In a notoriously litigious country like the Philippines, it's
bewildering that the government coupled a law targeting so-called cybercrimes like
cybersex, child pornography, identity theft, and spamming with the hoary
and over-used concept of libel. And no matter how abusive those crimes may be, it's
an even bigger mystery why the government felt it should suspend its lengthy heritage
of due legal process by giving the Department of Justice power to shut down
websites and monitor all online activities without a warrant.

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Bangkok, September 5, 2012--Philippine authorities must immediately
investigate the murder of a radio journalist, establish the motive, and bring
the perpetrators to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.